Phonetics and Phonology of Washo, an indigenous language of California
Alan Yu, Professor
Linguistics
Applications for Fall 2026 are closed for this project.
This project documents the phonetics and phonology of Washo, a critically endangered Native American language of California and Nevada. Drawing on two decades of audio recordings with native speakers, the project will produce the first comprehensive phonetic description of Washo, including detailed acoustic analysis of its consonant and vowel systems, prosodic patterns, and phonological processes. This work provides essential documentation for language revitalization efforts and theoretical linguistics.
Qualifications: We are seeking motivated undergraduate research apprentices to support the documentation of Washo, a critically endangered language isolate. The primary responsibility will be the automatic force-alignment of an audio corpus of Washo using tools like the Montreal Forced Aligner (MFA), transforming raw recordings into time-aligned phonetic data. Additional tasks include orthographic standardization, metadata management, and the extraction of acoustic features (such as formants and VOT) using Praat. Through this role, the student will achieve high-level proficiency in computational phonetic workflows and develop the analytical skills necessary to contribute to a comprehensive linguistic description. This position offers a unique opportunity to apply modern technology to vital language revitalization and theoretical research.
The ideal candidate is a detail-oriented student in Linguistics or allied fields with a passion for phonetics and language revitalization. You should feel comfortable looking at a spectrogram and be eager to master computational tools that bridge the gap between traditional fieldwork and modern data science.
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Social Sciences